27th May 2004 Archive

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ONStor's virtual NAS for SAN convergence

Offers to rescue storage island castaways

With Fibre Channel now mature, and the storage winner everywhere but the low end, NAS is now more of an island than SAN ever was. So says Peter Tarrant, marketing VP at NAS-on-SAN developer ONStor, which has just brought its SANfiler systems to the UK. SANfiler is an OpenBSD-based NAS head that serves up SAN storage as CIFS and …

Storage 27 May 2004, 08:33
Napster opens Canadian outpost

Downloads service widens coverage

Napster rolled out its online music service out to Canadian consumers yesterday, announcing an exclusive, "multi-year" tie-in with Molson to provide the brewer with song downloads. The move was signalled last week when the company launched its UK service - the UK software CDs also show Napster's www.napster.ca URL. Like the UK …

Financial News 27 May 2004, 09:34
NHS workers trial hi-tech panic buttons

District nurses test tracking tech

UK health service workers are to be tagged with electronic tracking devices in a pilot scheme designed to promote the safety of NHS staff who regularly work on their own, such as district nurses. The scheme comes about in response to increased levels of violence against health workers. In the year to October 2003, 15 per cent …

Mobile 27 May 2004, 10:03
Broadband killed the TV star

Raising competition stakes

European TV broadcasters are losing viewers to the Web, a medium they must embrace as broadband roll out presses on. That's according to UK-based research firm Strategy Analytics, which said in a new report that TV viewers are spending more time in front of the display connected to their PC, and less time watching the box. " …

Broadband 27 May 2004, 10:04
Call centre company gets £2m boost

It was five years ago today... 27 May 1999

These days, offshoring British call centres to India is a contentious issue. Back in the last century, the home-grown, phone-based customer services operative was "the backbone of UK economic prosperity". No, really: Call centre company gets £2m boost By Linda Harrison Published Thursday 27th May 1999 15:12 GMT Independent …

Data Networking 27 May 2004, 10:07
Hardware vendors descend on Taipei

Computex Preview Yes, it's showtime

The annual hardware-fest that its Computex kicks off in Taipei next week, with local players, major and minor, and multinational operations coming together to demo their latest products across a diverse array of market segments. The show's exhibitor list is extensive - we haven't counted them all, but the list stretches to 24 …

Channel 27 May 2004, 10:14
AMD targets low-end Athlon 64s at new markets

64-bit 2600+ chip debuts in India

AMD is preparing a low-cost Athlon 64 chip, the 2600+, it has emerged. Indian channel-oriented website Channel Times reported yesterday about AMD's attempts to broaden the Athlon 64's appeal in the region. In what was almost a throwaway line toward the end of the story, it mentioned an Athlon 64 2600+. The chip doesn't appear …

Channel 27 May 2004, 10:14
BT wins Suffolk e-gov contract

No more bouncing

BT has won a ten-year contract to set up and manage the online services for Suffolk county council and Mid Suffolk district council. The deal covers public access, and behind-the scenes infrastructure. BT and CGI, its chosen technology partner, will set up a joint venture with the councils to run the services. Suffolk county …

Data Networking 27 May 2004, 10:17
Canadian, 16, on Randex worm rap

Mounties slap cuffs on suspected author

Canadian police have charged a 16 year-old youth with writing and distributing the damaging computer worm Randex. The teenager from Mississauga, near Toronto, faces "mischief and fraudulent use of a computer" charges. Canadian authorities have withheld the suspect's name because he is a juvenile. Royal Canadian Mounted Police …

Security 27 May 2004, 11:10
Danish IT firm gives workers free Net porn

Luncheon vouchers, Scandinavian style

Forget luncheon vouchers, Danish IT outfit LL Media has set a new benchmark in worker welfare by handing its workers free subscriptions to Net porn sites. The company hopes that the freebies will stop randy Scandinavian employees from accessing Web smut while at work. Levi Nielsen, company director of the Nordjylland-based …

Bootnotes 27 May 2004, 11:11
SiS churns out PCI Express parts

Shipments in June

SiS has begun volume production of its PCI Express South Bridge chip, the SiS965L, Taiwanese sources claim. However, since SiS has already promised that mobos based on the part will ship next month, that's perhaps only to be expected. Certainly, SiS is expected to showcase the South Bridge and motherboards that use it next …

Channel 27 May 2004, 11:11
Apple Euro music licence win signals mid-June launch?

ITMS coming soon, sources suggest

Apple could be ready to launch its iTunes Music Store (ITMS) in Europe by the middle of June, sources said to be familiar with the company's plans have claimed. They reckon that the Mac maker may now have secured licences from the major labels and others it needs in order to open ITMS to UK and other European buyers. …

Financial News 27 May 2004, 11:17
Cisco outs really big router

One for the telcos

Cisco marked its 20th birthday this week by unveiling a new router platform for telecoms firms. The CRS-1 Carrier Routing System carries a huge amount of traffic, scaling up to 92TBps, and it will provide Cisco's carrier grade platform for the next ten years. The product will have a shelf life of 20 years. The router starts …

Data Networking 27 May 2004, 11:22
Boffins trumpet horn shaped universe

Called Picard. No, really.

Researchers in Germany have been looking carefully at the after glow of the big bang and have decided that the universe is shaped like a trumpet bell, or as some would have it, the Eiffel Tower. And in a twist of fate that will have Star Trek fans in a state of near apoplectic glee, the particular topology that best fits the …

Science 27 May 2004, 11:31
Sony to ship portable video, MP3 player next month

Reg Kit Watch Yes, really MP3

Having admitted this week that Apple beat it to offering the "Walkman of the 21st Century", Sony is fiercely fighting back to recapture the title. Earlier this month we reported on its first Vaio-branded colour portable music player, the VGF-AP1. Today, Sony unveiled a second machine, this time pitched even more as an adjunct …

Mobile 27 May 2004, 11:57
Cingular kicks off 3G trial in Atlanta

Lucent gear

Cingular Wireless is to trial 3G services in Atlanta and has selected Lucent to provide the networking equipment. No live customers will be involved in the trial when kicks off in the summer - Cingular is using its own people as guinea pigs to evaluate mobile voice, high-speed data and multimedia services. The trial will also …

Mobile 27 May 2004, 12:03
Dixons buys MicroWarehouse UK

Big B2B push

Dixons Stores Group subsidiary PC World Business has bought MicroWarehouse UK, one of Europe's longest-established direct resellers, from its US parent, MicroWarehouse, inc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. MicroWarehouse achieved sales totalling £143m during financial and calendar 2003. The company was formed in the …

Channel 27 May 2004, 12:40
Windows worms tax ISPs

European ISPs hit for €123m in 2004

Computer worms will cost European ISPs an estimated €123m this year, according to a study by Sandvine. The Net traffic management firm says its study shows attacks on European service providers are now a daily occurrence. Although worms are usually associated with attacks on corporate networks, the malicious traffic also ties …

Data Networking 27 May 2004, 13:27
Boffins build room-temperature nano transistor

Liquid helium market crash expected

A collaboration between German and US scientists has yielded a single-electron transistor with a vibrating silicon arm 200 nanometres long, just tens of nanometres across, and tipped with gold. The transistor belongs to a class of devices known as nanoelectromechanical systems, which, according to PhysicsWeb, can be …

Science 27 May 2004, 13:32
Apple posts Mac OS X update

Bug fixes take server, client versions to 10.3.4

Apple has released Mac OS X 10.3.4, the latest Panther update. The new release is available as a 39.5MB standalone download from Apple's web site, or via the operating system's Software Update System Preferences panel. Apple is also offering a 79MB combination update for folk who have yet to upgrade Panther from 10.3 to any of …

Mac Channel 27 May 2004, 14:30
Xerox to fight patent validity ruling

Denies prior art negates its Unistroke IP

Xerox is to appeal against a US District Court ruling that this week declared invalid a text-entry patent it holds and used to sue PalmOne in 1997. On Monday, Judge Michael A Telesca of the US District Court for the Western District of New York said: "Prior art references anticipate and render obvious the claim [made in the …

Mobile 27 May 2004, 14:42
UK scientists seek silent aircraft

£2.5m project examines hush-hush airliner

Today saw the launch of an ambitious £2.5m, three-year project led by Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) - the Silent Aircraft Initiative (SAI). Its plan is pretty simple: to produce aircraft "whose noise emissions would barely be heard above the background noise level in a typical built-up area". The initiative boasts an impressive …

Science 27 May 2004, 15:22
NTT DoCoMo flees 3 UK

Sells out

NTT DoComo is offloading its 20 per cent share of 3 UK to majority owner Hutchison Wampoa for £120m ($218m). Hutchison is buying the stake with shares in Hutchison Telecommunications International, its Hong Kong mobile telecoms operator. But first it has to list HTIL - failure to do so means that DoCoMo can claim cash. …

Mobile 27 May 2004, 15:52
Taiwanese engineer 'assisted Chinese hackers'

Viral code designer gets collar felt

Are international law enforcement authorities finally mounting a concerted clamp-down on virus writers? A Taiwanese computer engineer was arrested on cyber-crime charges today following the arrest of a teenage virus writing suspect in Canada and the capture of two alleged VXers in Germany earlier this month. In the latest case …

Security 27 May 2004, 16:19